Women’s War Drama in England in the Seventeenth Century By Bre ...

It is shown that the end of hostilities does not mean the end of war. When Charles II returned to power in 1660, there was a feeling of jubilation throughout the land. His promises to forget the past and pardon his enemies heralded a new era of peace and reconciliation and for a while he was quite successful. However, the old wounds resurfaced to haunt him and by the 1670s there was so much political instability that some people feared a return to war. There were rumours about plots, and a drift towards war seemed inevitable as the old adversaries—Court and Parliament—lined up in their opposing camps. Chapter 1 gives a background to the Civil War period and makes clear the context in which the plays were written and how they engage directly or indirectly with the theme of war.

Chapter 2 begins with a definition of the phenomenon of the creation of women’s community in war. As mentioned earlier, Nina Auerbach argues that the coming together of women in war “is one of the unacknowledged fruits of war”.³³ This unacknowledged fruit is borne out in the drama entitled The Concealed Fancies, which was written by Lady Jane Cavendish and Lady Elizabeth Brackley in 1645 at the height of the Civil War. The play was probably written by the sisters during the time when Welbeck Abbey was being besieged by the Parliamentary forces. It is argued that the sisters responded to the siege in a creative way, and that instead of capitulating to the menacing events that were unfolding around them, they used their suffering as subject matter for their drama. In the play, a sense of siege pervades the atmosphere. As Luceny and Tattiney act out their “scenes”, the audience is always aware that a bigger drama is taking place outside. The reality was that the Cavendish women were no longer safe and their world was crumbling rapidly. As Cicilley points out, “our pedantical servants, have given us up for a prey to the enemy” (3.4.1–3). It is obvious that the play acting masks the genuine grief and fear that the siege engendered.